Don’t drive. Walk, bus or enjoy a cup of coffee while “remotely working.” Here are the weird ice balls that started the whole problem last night. You don’t want to mess with that kind of weirdness.
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So, why do people try to drive up/down the Aloha hill on days like this? Discuss.
I drove over to Madrona with only a little panic. I stayed on 15th, Madison, 23rd, and Cherry. No way was I going up Union. It’s actually a lot better over here in Madrona. And the weird ice balls? Terrorists.
Arrived at Broadway and John at 8:30 to catch the 43 or 49. Arrived on campus at 9:50. Go Metro!
45 Minutes to get from the top of Capitol Hill to Fremont. Usually takes 10-15. Plus nearly 10 minutes of scraping the car’s windows. Normally take 15th down to 10th, but avoided it today so I wouldn’t slide off the bluff above Interlaken Park. 15th, Aloha, 10th was much better.
Because jamming on your breaks and skidding all the way down Aloha and through a stop sign is a way of proving that your SUV’s 4 wheel drive doesn’t actually do squat for you in inclement whether.
All cars have 4 wheel breaks, but big heavy ones seemed to skid the fastest.
I waited around until 10:30 or so this morning to drive down to Tukwila. I had to work hard to get my car scraped off, and I was a little worried about getting out of my space since there was still 1/4 inch of ice on Howell. However, I got off my street just fine and Madison was clear. When I got to work, there was nothing.
The weird ice balls happened last year at around this time, as well. They remind me of dippin’ dots.
Walking isn’t that big of a picnic either…
The ice balls are called graupel. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graupel) They form in a similar way to hail. The storm of heavy precip we had last night was caused and indicative of heavy downdrafts of cold air, which formed and dropped the graupel. As soon as I got off the bus around 6:45 and felt the cold air (compared to mild at 6th & Pike), I knew we were in for a hit.
Temperatures were slightly above freezing at the time all the precipitation moved through, allowing for it to melt a little bit and freeze as a coat of ice over everything when temperatures dropped below freezing shortly after it cleared out.
yeah, weatherman, now you tell us